The latest round of United Nations Climate Change Talks in Bangkok wrapped up on Friday without clarity on finance and mid-term emission reduction targets, both crucial elements for a new deal to be reached on December’s Copenhagen climate change conference.
Although a will has emerged in Bangkok to build the architecture to rapidly implement climate action, “significant differences remain,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, who chairs the talks starting from September 28.
There’s no significant political progress being made in this round of talks, the UN’s top climate change official told Xinhua, adding that the two key issues remaining unsolved are the commitment by developed countries on their mid-term emission reduction and the finance that developed countries should provide to developing ones to adapt and mitigate the climate change. “It is time now to step back from self interest and let the common interest prevail,” said de Boer at the press conference on the last day of the talks.
The talks, which attracted more than 4,000 delegates from 177 countries, managed to trim the 200-page negotiation draft text for Copenhagen down by half, Yvo de Boer said.
